This course is offered to all English Language Level 1 students and covers two distinct yet complementary competences: phonetics and reading skills. The course will first cover the basic phonetic symbols used to describe the sounds of English, and will then make use of authentic written material to enhance students’ reading comprehension skills. The material used will be selected to ensure that the main varieties and registers of English will be dealt with (British, North American, Antipodean, Indian, and including academic, formal, informal, literary, bureaucratic registers). This material will be culled from a variety of sources, but will include only authentic, non adapted texts. Students will be expected to be familiar with the use of dictionaries and glossaries, both in hard and electronic copy.

Aims

The course aims to provide students with the phonetic tools that will allow them to adequately consult dictionaries for the pronunciation of unfamiliar English words, as well as familiarize students with the different varieties of English and the daunting task of textual interpretation, a necessary prerequisite to any translation. As such, students will be exposed to the basic varieties of English via authentic material, which will be analyzed both structurally and semantically.

By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze basic textual types and be able to relate the basic contents and salient features of the text either in written or oral form, and in both English and Italian.

Assessment

Assessment for this will consist in analyzing an extended piece of written material and providing a summary of its contents, either in oral or written form and either in English or Italian.